While the borough of Queens has two conflicting Republican factions, which might be what determined the circumstances surrounding the appointment of their Republican Commissioner, we have no knowledge of two openly conflicting factions in Kings County. The political power play in Queens should not have been applied to Brooklyn, and this leads to several conclusions as follows:

First and most importantly, is the failure of the respective County Chairmen of the Republican Party to submit a letter of recommendation for the appointment or reappointment of the Election Commissioners of the GOP. Such an omission created the unusual and rarely used procedure that empowered the members of the City Council of the Republican Party to fill the vacancies of Election Commissioners with what appears to be their own choice. The problem in this case is that Kings County has no Republican Council member that completely represents the borough of Brooklyn. Therefore, the choice of appointment for the Brooklyn Republican Election Commissioner had to be made by people who had nothing or very little to do with Brooklyn.

This brings the next point which is a simple question: Who authorized or made the recommendation from Kings County?

Being a “fan” of a State Senator or vice-verse should not preclude that a “fan” could be appointed to what is considered to be one of the highest positions in the Republican Party from Kings County. Similarly, this should not preclude the possibility of giving the opportunity to the Republican Executive Committee of Kings County (especially duly elected ones, and not the appointed ones) to recommend other Republican Party members for appointment to this position, especially those who have previous experience and knowledge of the NYC Board of Elections and its procedures. Perhaps the appointment of “fans” is one of the reasons why the NYC Board of Elections has been defined as “dysfunctional”. As such, it will continue to have this reputation if recommendations for appointments to all Board of Election jobs are based upon loyalty to the party alone and not on consideration to qualifications for a particular position.

In reference to your May 15, 2012 Staten Island Advance article “Brooklyn GOP Endorses Grey for State Senate”, I wish to clarify some disturbing inaccuracies contained within this article. It is therefore, for the sake of reflecting the real truth of the matter, that I must strenuously point out that the words “unanimous endorsement of Ms. Grey”, by Craig Eaton, current Chairman of the Brooklyn GOP, is inaccurate at best, or can even be considered misleading.

As the duly elected Republican State Committee Members of the 49th AD, neither Michael Bennette nor I, were informed or invited to a meeting where such an important decision was reached. When Mr. Eaton states that the “entire committee” recognized Ms. Grey as a formidable candidate for the 23rd district, he forgot to state that the committee he mentioned did not include the members of the 49th AD. In order to further clarify this contention, I must say that out of the 138 election districts in the 23rd Senate District in Bklyn, 21 election districts are located in the 49th AD, which is equivalent to 15.21% of this Senate District.

As concerned Republicans, we certainly are pleased to see a challenge to the current Democratic incumbent State Senator in the 23rd SD; however we must state that the Republican Leaders of the 49th AD have not been asked, nor have we given any endorsement to any candidate for this Senate seat.

I would like to make some observations about the article listed below. While I wholeheartedly agree that Bensonhurst can be described as “a neighborhood where hardworking parents raise educated, ambitious children”, I must add that this has been possible for generations because of the community bond that resulted in working together towards the closest realization of the melting pot atmosphere which is one of the major characteristics of Bensonhurst. It is a fact that walking through the streets of Bensonhurst, one can read shop signs in several different languages including the Italian language.

It is however outright deplorable and senseless to change, or even attempt to change, the fiber and the composition of any community by imposing demographic changes that do not reflect the actual make-up of the community. As a born-and bred native of Bensonhurst, I very much oppose the proposed district changes that would affect a very large portion of Bensonhurst solely to accommodate people who originally had nothing to do with our area and who are being forced to become part of a community without following the natural course of events that is referred to as the “melting pot” effect.

The citizens of Bensonhurst have always welcomed other ethnic groups and will continue to welcome all people who, like our ancestors, decided to settle here and become part of this community. This decision should be the community’s and not an imposition that comes from career politicians that are interested only in perpetuating themselves in office through manipulation and false pretenses of championing the rights of representation of one ethnic group as opposed to the rights of other ethnic groups as the necessity for such changes.

Hence, the necessity for all people of Bensonhurst and any other community subjected to such a political intrusion is to rise up and be counted against these blatant demagogic actions.

A piece by Brooklyn Eagle editor Raanan Geberer, which summed up the findings of a recent report put out by the Center for the Study of Brooklyn at Brooklyn College, describes Bensonhurst as a neighborhood where hardworking parents raise educated, ambitious children. And when it comes to smoking and health, we’re sort of like France.

One of the most promising findings in the article – which was published yesterday – was that, despite Bensonhurst’s working class, immigrant demographic (or maybe because of it), our hood has generally not displayed significant signs of encroaching poverty – indicators which have become increasingly common in blue collar communities throughout the country since the current economic downturn began in 2008. Much of the data used in the study was from 2008-2009.

This sign outside of a Bay Parkway barber shop illustrates how Bensonhurst’s big city diversity and old school values often coexist as opposite sides of the same coin.

In fact, poverty among children in Bensonhurst had actually decreased by around one third since 2000.

Although Bensonhurst and Bath Beach are basically working-class areas with a growing number of immigrants, there are few indicators of what sociologists call the “culture of poverty.”

Sixty-three percent of today’s Community District 11 high school students graduate on time, higher than the borough-wide average of 58.8 percent. And 54.2 percent of the area’s students head to college, more than the 48 percent borough-wide figure. Only 21 percent of the adults aged 25 or older are college graduates, but it’s typical in immigrant areas for children to become better educated than their parents.

Community District 11’s median household income rose only slightly from 2000 to 2007-09, from $41,873 to $42,071. In 2007-09, 18.6 percent of all children under the age of 18 lived in poverty, down from 27.5 percent in 2000.

The neighborhood’s evolving ethnic makeup is also reflected in the report.

The white population decreased between 2000 and 2007-09 from 65 percent to 52 percent, while at the same time the Asian population increased from 23 percent to 33.7 percent, with the Latino population increasing from 8.2 percent to 12.6 percent.

The area’s top three ethnic groups – in order from first to third, Italian, Chinese, and Russian – remained the same.

The order of the most common places of birth however, had changed – albeit slightly. While in 2000 it was New York State, China, Italy, Russia, and Ukraine, in 2007-2009 Russia had replaced Italy in the number three spot, with Italy dropping to number four.

Also indicative of Bensonhurst’s growing immigrant population is the number of households whose adult residents speak little or no English – which rose from 27.8 percent to 37.9 percent.

To top it all off, in spite of having one of the city’s highest smoking rates, the report states that neighborhood residents seem to be healthy. The majority of residents polled for the study responded that they were in good or excellent health. The percentage of people eating fresh fruits and vegetables at least once a day increased from 80 in 2000 to 85 in 2007-09, while the number of people who exercised within the past month increased from 71 percent to 86.